It's Time for the UAW's New President to Prove It

After an election process that dragged on for weeks — in the first direct election in the UAW’s history of its president — Shawn Fain claimed victory Saturday, with opponent and current UAW President Ray Curry conceding. Fain was sworn-in on Sunday, ahead of this week’s 2023 Special Bargaining Convention, ahead of labor contracts with the Big Three expiring in September. On the campaign trail, Fain promised no more corruption and a feistier negotiating stance on behalf of UAW members. With his narrow election victory secured — Fain won 69,459 votes, while Curry won 68,976 votes — Fain will have a short amount of time to put his money where his mouth is.

And his mouth, for now, is talking a big game.

Separately, the Detroit Free Press took a deep dive Monday on how the next several months might shape up for Fain and the UAW’s leadership, and it includes talk of possibly striking the Big Three all at once.

In fact, in a draft report written for Fain by his transition team manager, Fain plans a “complete rebranding of the union … informed by a more militant/fighting vision.” The memo, which was recently obtained by the Free Press, makes reference to “striking the Big 3.”

If there is a strike later this year, industry experts pin the target on GM or Stellantis. But two high-ranking UAW officials told the Free Press a strike could involve all three Detroit automakers. Those people asked to not be identified for fear of repercussions for divulging internal discussions.

Strike or no strike, neither GM, Stellantis nor Ford will get off easily, experts said.

“No matter the target for a strike, the industry should expect negotiations that are more difficult, more hostile and more expensive to resolve,” said Erik Gordon, business professor at Ross School of Business at University of Michigan. “Fain’s platform rests on two planks − no corruption and more aggression. What he needs is a bitter strike to show supporters that he wasn’t kidding and that he got workers more than they ever got from the old guard.”

The UAW has used pattern bargaining — choosing a target automaker to bargain with first, getting the best deal possible, then pursuing similar deals with the other automakers — since at least the late ‘40s, though it has arguably become less effective as non-union automotive labor has spread throughout the south and west among foreign automakers and Tesla.

Some of this isn’t the UAW’s fault — foreign automakers have taken good advantage of right-to-work laws down south, which have made UAW organizing down there almost impossible — but the next priority for the UAW after its 2023 contracts are done should probably be unionizing the Tesla plant in California, which isn’t governed by a right-to-work law and is, on paper, there for the taking. The UAW could certainly use more members, for another thing, and surely they can do better than last time. Or at least that’s what a militant new UAW president might say.